Friday, August 24, 2007

So, another birthday... another occasion to bake! My friend SQB and I have been friends since the 6th grade! We met on burrito day in the cafeteria. True Story.

Anyway, her birthday was Wednesday! Yay! Happy Birthday! So, since we've been friends for like 15 years now and we've shared an apartment together for a year and I was the maid of honor in her wedding... you'd think I know a lot about the type of sweet tooth that she has. Right?? Like, that's a prerequisite for a maid of honor, no? Well, apparently I somehow got around that prereq. I started to think over the weekend what I could make for her... and I was drawing a blank.

I started thinking about when we lived together... what kinds of desserts did we eat then? I remember making iced brownies for a crowd (texas sheet cake) for a halloween party and I think she liked those... I also remember we always made the same meal... lasagna, cheese and sausage dip with chips, and reese piece's peanut butter cookies (from the packages). I know all kinds of main dishes that she likes and veggies and I know what she doesn't like... but the desserts were eluding me... (Oh crap.... as I type this, I now know EXACTLY the cookie she would have wanted.... Grandma Cookies!!!! Uggghhh.. how did I forget that?? Okay, well thats for another time.. damn, I cant believe I forgot).

So, I decided to go the multiple cookie route. 1. My Signature Cookie (of course) and when I saw this recipe for double chocolate chip cookies, I decided they looked promising...

Oh my god, y'all these are da bomb! (Sorry, I somehow channeled Britney Spears there for a minute). The spread a lot on me, so next time I think I'll chill the dough first a bit. The only change I made was I added more chocolate. More chocolate chips... I used a whole bag of ghiradelli milk chocolate chips (11.5 ozs). 4 ozs was melted with the butter and the rest were mixed in the dough. And I also added 2 oz of ghiradelli semi sweet chunks.

And added note... This recipe calls for DUTCH processed cocoa. Now, my regular grocery store doesn't carry and DUTCH processed cocoa. Only natural cocoa. Is there a difference? Yes, there is... And you can use natural cocoa subsituted for DUTCH, but you have to add some baking soda to the recipe as well. Luckily, I found DUTCH cocoa at Harris Teeter... It's Hershey's Dark Cocoa and its a lovely black color and dutch! Score!